Chief Minister Jayalalithaa laid the foundation stone for the Rs 330 crore project involving linking of two lakes in Kannankottai and Thervoykandigai villages in neighbouring Tiruvallur district on Wednesday. The Chief Minister had made an announcement in this regard in 2012, envisaging linking the two lakes to create a reservoir with a storage capacity of one tmcft.

"A total of 1000 mcft (one tmcft) of water could be stored in this reservoir by filling it up twice a year. This (effort) will pave way for supplying drinking water to Chennai city and its suburbs," a government release said on Thursday. The reservoir will be used to store water received from the Krishna river in Andhra Pradesh under an agreement with that state besides the rainwater received during monsoon seasons.

While proposing the project in 2012, government had said it was necessitated in the wake of expanding boundaries of Chennai and drinking water requirements within. Reservoirs at Poondi, Cholavaram, Redhills and Chembarambakkam presently cater to the city's drinking water requirements.

Meanwhile, in a separate release, Jayalalithaa announced releasing water from Amaravathy Dam for irrigation purpose, which, she said, will benefit 47,117 acres in Tirupur and Karur districts.